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Cognitive Mapping of the Contemporary German Matrimonial Confrontational Discourse

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Cognitive Mapping of the Contemporary German Matrimonial Confrontational Discourse © 2019 Lege artis. Language yesterday, today, tomorrow Research article LEGE ARTIS Language yesterday, today, tomorrow Vol. IV. No 2 2019 COGNITIVE MAPPING OF THE CONTEMPORARY GERMAN MATRIMONIAL CONFRONTATIONAL DISCOURSE Iryna Osovska*, Liudmyla Tomniuk Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine *Corresponding author Bibliographic description: Osovska, I. & Tomniuk, L. (2019). Cognitive mapping of the contemporary German matrimonial confrontational discourse. In Lege artis. Language yesterday, today, tomorrow. The journal of University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava. Trnava: University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, 2019, IV (2), December 2019, p. 168-215. ISSN 2453-8035 Abstract: The article presents a method of cognitive mapping using an example of reconstruction of conceptual system of contemporary German matrimonial confrontational discourse that reproduces collective cognitive space of German matrimonial couples. The basic principle of the proposed methodology allows following up a holistic mental representation of this segment of family discourse in a statistically verified conceptual structure and the system of correlations between its elements. Key words: discourse practice, family discourse, matrimonial discourse, confrontational communication, conceptual system, cognitive space, collective cognitive space, linguoquantitative method. 1. Introduction Present-day linguistic studies are focused on systemic organization of the individual's thinking. As Prihodko and Prykhodchenko claim, "cognitive processes in our mind are usually connected with our vision and understanding of outer world in general and our place in it in particular" (2018: 164). Mental background of any activity is reconstructed by researchers as both separate concepts containing specified knowledge, conceptual spheres, and fields united by common logical-semantic or substantive content, and conceptual systems as discursive-relevant formations of concepts representing certain relevant spaces of an individual. In this case, we agree 168 ISSN 2453-8035 with Halych, who states that "different mental structures that are realized by a language are formed as a result of studying the world and experiencing it" (2018: 39). According to Starzyńska and Budziszewska (2018: 291), discourse "authoritatively decides on whether to include or exclude particular contents from archives of social knowledge". Modern variety of interpretations of the phenomenon of discourse generally allows us to determine our position as a socially linguistic one within the functional approach, the methodological principle of functionalism, the anthropocentric principle of language that "is integral in the communication of social realities" (Radzi et al. 2018: 38) as well as speech consideration. Therefore, we treat discourse as a functional ethno-cultural space of a particular society, represented by a certain verbalized practice in a certain socio-communicative sphere. In this research, we define discourse using a strictly linguistic meaning of the term, as a linguistic unit of communication, which reflects differentiated diversity of the world's picture and includes typical situations of social interaction, participants, social norms and conventions, and cultural representations. Since one of the social constructs significantly influencing the behavior of a person is the whole family and marital relationship as an element of it in particular, then, on the background of the research direction explicitly declared in the title, the notion of a collective cognitive family/marital space as a particularly structured set of knowledge and representations that all the individual family/marital social group (as a discursive community) members possess. Family/marital collective cognitive space is an integral part of the individual cognitive space, and family discourse (FD) in general and matrimonial discourse (MD) as its component, in particular, the sphere of interaction of the individual and the social-collective. Typical ideas of marital relationships turn into representation of stereotypical interaction situations in the family as a small social group, modeled in the memory as objects of the MD concept space, the basis of which is specific configuration of its 169 ISSN 2453-8035 autochthons – the concept system – "interfield formation, where a certain set of concepts is situationally arranged according to the principle of logical activity and, as a result, is included in the system of the highest order, an ensemble of nationally marked mental units of linguoculture – the concept sphere" (Приходько 2008: 237). The above mentioned may be considered appropriate for realization of cognitive bases of the mechanism of forming and functioning family/marital cognitive collective space that is a mental basis of family discourse – interactive mental and verbal activity of the family members as a small group of German ethnocultural society performed daily to ensure vital activity of people through implementation of practical tasks in social reproductive process. Accordingly, the relevance of the study is determined by orientation of modern linguistic studies within the cognitive-discursive paradigm on objective determination of complementarities of mental and verbal resources of discursive practices, which enables to describe their mental conditionality. Cognitive-discursive approach to the study of family/marital discourse practice allows presenting its information archive and reveal the basics of German national mentality, by comparing its cognitive representation, verbal reproduction, and discursive realization. The mental resource of a certain discursive practice is represented by a specific conceptual system that can be modeled using the technique of cognitive mapping. Its application on the background of FD variations may result in cognitive maps – of matrimonial (communication between husband/partner and wife/partner) and parental (intercourse of communicants with the status roles of father/mother and son/daughter), and siblings discourse (communication between brothers/sisters). These layouts of statuses and roles are conducive to strategically variable interactions that change due to their communicative intention and, in turn, their scenarios become fixed and consolidated in the form of experience to be put into practice again by virtue of special verbal manifestations in typical situations. Acknowledging the fact that the relation 170 ISSN 2453-8035 between cooperation (harmony) and conflict (disharmony) stems from two intrinsic constituent parts of life in general as well as the entire system of social relations, it is pertinent to regard them as the principal vectors of the FD assuming the existence of diverse participants with potentially different intentions and purposes and the thematization of various aspects of reality. However, it is absolutely clear that the functions of communicative activity are in evidence in every case of the FD, they do not exist in an isolated form, and their part is rather dominant. Communicative activity includes such functions as atmosphere maintenance, information transfer, prompting a partner, clarifying a current state of affairs, contradicting a current state of affairs. Respectively, the dominant communicative function generated through cognitive process of understanding a certain situation from a global perspective can acquire the status of the classification constant, which is the global strategy of a communicative event within the scope of the mutual activity of an addressee and an addresser. The elucidated material enables us to categorize cooperative and confrontational FD as mode types of German FD. Cooperative FD can be characterized by consistency or neutrality of communicants' intentions that are inextricably linked by actions and aimed at accomplishment of mutual purposes and the realization of a common aim, which includes cooperation, help, support, and protection. Confrontational FD can be characterized by divergence between initial intentions of communicants, open or implicit clash between the parties and/or can be aimed at verbalization of any conflict of interests or values. Global cooperation and confrontation strategies provide modern perspective and insight into pragmatics of a family as a community and are developed within the framework so as to ensure that intersubjective interaction enables communicants to achieve their mutual purposes formed against the backdrop of the family institution that is actualized in a particular type of discourse. Mental grounds of MD presented in one of our articles (Osovska 2015), validated the fact that the formation of the so-called We-position is the pre-requisite for cooperation of a couple, as a result of which communicative spaces of subjects are installed in the interactive We-space based on the ability to acknowledge the individual's personal 171 ISSN 2453-8035 concerns and simultaneously align their behavior with personal concerns as well as the ones belonging to the individual's partner. The research confirmed the importance of observing social conventions and values, the possibility of fulfilling daily living needs, financial needs as well as the existent feelings and emotions that maintain cooperative atmosphere within the framework "marriage – partnership". The aim of this research follows from the information mentioned above and intends to determine the structure of the collective cognitive space of modern German matrimonial group members, relevant
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